Spot Bitcoin ETF: Cathie Wood’s Ark Invest is First in Line

Cathie Wood’s Ark Invest has boldly declared that it is first in line to receive potential approval from the SEC for a spot Bitcoin Exchange Traded Fund (ETF). 

Ark Invest is More Deserving

This comes after BlackRock brought a renewal of hope to the cryptocurrency industry through its spot BTC ETF application with the United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). Therefore many people believe that if approval is coming soon from the regulator, BlackRock would be best posited for it.

Bloomberg Intelligence ETF analyst James Seyffart on the other hand, says Ark Invest is more deserving of approval citing an earlier application. 

“21Shares, ARK and Cboe are first in line because their next SEC decision date is 8/13/23 and we don’t yet have a date for the other 19b-4 applications like the one from BlackRock,” Seyffart explained.

Globally recognized investment asset management firm BlackRock filed for a spot BTC ETF over a week ago with plans to use the Coinbase Custody platform and the American crypto exchange spot market data for pricing. 

BNY Mellon is billed to act as the cash custodian of the ETF. The application was filed around the time when the SEC indicted both Binance and Coinbase for operating registered companies and trading registered securities amongst other charges.

BlackRock’s Filing Spurs More Requests

Consequently, the BlackRock application led to a price rally in the broad crypto market. Around this time, Bitcoin jumped to $31,000, although it is currently trading at $30,117.46 having experienced a 0.87% decrease in the last 24 hours. Considering BlackRock’s size, status and reputation, institutional investors began to camp around crypto. 

At that moment, many other investment management companies equally filed for the same offering. Some others like Valkyrie and WisdomTree whose spot BTC ETF application had previously been denied also reapplied. It seems like BlackRock may be able to differentiate its filing from that of the others through the appendage of a “unique” exchange surveillance-sharing agreement that is focused on preventing market manipulation.

According to Yassine Elmandjra, an analyst at ARK Investment Management, “other applicants will be able to amend their filings with similar agreements at little cost.”